A New Camera

[Janice Freeman]

With the sad demise of Jessops, I am now looking elsewhere for a new camera, and am considering the Nikon D7000 as my current lenses are compatible.

This is any enquiry I made to London Camera Exchange in Manchester and their reply:

I would appreciate your assistance. I currently have Nikon D3100 and want to upgrade my camera. I have been looking at the D7000, but need to know if my current lenses are compatible. They are:
> Nikon DX AF-S Nikkor 55-200mm 1:4-5.6G ED VR
> Nikon DX AF-S Nikkor 35mm 1:1.8G
> Nikon DX AF-S Nikkor 18-55mm 1:3.5-5.6G VR

REPLY
Hi Janice

All of your lenses are fully compatible with Nikon D7000. However I would recommend on this camera 18-105 kit lens or higher. 18-55 is a little poor lens on high specification body. Also 55-200 will be better replaced by 70-300 VR or even Tamron 70-300 VC.

Is this good advice or 'sales spin' ?

Thanks Janice.

[John]

It's entirely possible that it's good advice, but the lenses you have would be a good start. To compare lenses, there are lots os tests on www.ephotozine.com and www.photodo.com so it's worth doing a bit of research.

[mikeaspinall]

Hi Janice
If I can put in my tuppence worth.
Before I went over to the 'dark side' (Canon) and had a Nikon camera I had the 18-200mm Nikkor lens which could replace your two zooms and was just about the perfect
'walkabout' lens being the equivalent to an 11 x zoom. It gave great results and would be compatible with the new camera. For that little bit extra
focal length I also had an old 70-300mm non IS lens which also gave pretty good results. Several membera at the club use the 18-200mm but of
course finance comes into the equation and you would presumably want to sell/exchange your current two zooms to pay for this lens. The 35mm f1.8
I would guess is a damned good and very sharp lens and might be worth hanging on to.

Good hunting

Michael

[Paul Jones]

REPLY
All of your lenses are fully compatible with Nikon D7000...

Personally, I'd be inclined to use the lenses you already have and see how they fare on your new camera before rushing out to buy new ones.

[yachtsman1]

Hi Janice
If you go onto Nikon UK's web site & search around in the support section there was an Exel spread sheet which lists all Nikon Nikkor lenses, you can see on there which lens fits which camera. Some fit but don't keep all the features, it also includes tele converters. I had a quick look but couldn't find it. I have a copy but it's about 5 years old so is way out of date, what I did find elsewhere is http://resources.nikonians.org/reviews? ... patibility
It isn't downloadable but you could have a quick look.
Regards Eric
Yachtsman1.

[PhilipHowe]

All of your lenses are fully compatible with Nikon D7000. However I would recommend on this camera 18-105 kit lens or higher. 18-55 is a little poor lens on high specification body. Also 55-200 will be better replaced by 70-300 VR or even Tamron 70-300 VC.

Is this good advice or 'sales spin' ?

Thanks Janice.

I think it's sound advice. I would upgrade your lenses to the very best possible before shelling out on a new camera body. You will still take the same quality photos on a new, "better" body, as you are always limited by the lens you use. If you use a kit lens on any body, then you will get a kit lens result.

There is nothing wrong with a kit lens, but the same kit lens on a newer body will not unleash an extra wealth of quality, you are still limited by that lens.

The best lens on a budget body will give better results than a kit lens on a pro body.


For reference, I wouldn't have bought from Jessops anyway, as there is a premium added. I'd try fotosense in Bolton (in The Valley) for instance, who are an outlet for their internet business. I would even look at second hand bodies and lenses from LCE or Real Camera in Manchester.

It's the equivalent of buying a new boiler because your house is cold, when you know that all your windows let a draft through.
2p.

[yachtsman1]

Hi Again Janice
Had a look through my archives & found the spread sheet I was referring to & it isn't as old as I thought. However, it is in an old version of Exel on my PC & because MS don't offer support for the version I have, I have had to convert it to Open Office Org format which I assume you know is a free system very similar to MS Office. Anyway, I have attached the converted doc, hopefully it will open, or someboy with OOO can convert it back to a later version of Exel.
Is nothing easy in this life???
Regards Eric
Just received an error message when I tried to upload (The extension ods is not allowed.)? It's like trying to plait fog. I will try to email it.

[Janice Freeman]

Really appreciate all the help and advice and am going to do some research now over the weekend to see what my best options are. You are quite right Erice, the little 35 mm is an excellent lens and was very cheap. So far it has produced some cracking shots but wide open is prone to fringing - however, I now know how to deal with this in Elements.

Many thanks
Janice

[Brian]

Janice if you want me to bring in my d7000 on thursday and you can bring your lenses just to give you peace of mind ?

[Janice Freeman]

Hi Brian, I have actually bought the camera body and am going to try the lenses that I have, get used to the camera, try and decide what I want to take and then will think seriously about the lenses that would be appropriate for me. Does that sound like an idea? Would welcome the chance to have a chat about the camera tho' as you have been using yours for some time. I eventually chose this over the D5200 as I think it is a better spec to start with, and 24mp is not necessary (for me at least). I will try and adapt to low level shots by trying different methods and seeing what works best for me - even if it means carrying a little light-weight folding stool or even a garden kneeler/seat. I can picture myself now with a shopping trolley to carry all my stuff.

Janice

[Paul Jones]

Hi Brian, I have actually bought the camera body and am going to try the lenses that I have, get used to the camera, try and decide what I want to take and then will think seriously about the lenses that would be appropriate for me.

Personally, I'd be inclined to use the lenses you already have and see how they fare on your new camera before rushing out to buy new ones.

"As usual Paul is absolutely correct."